Richard Lambert, chief executive officer at the National Landlords Association (NLA), said that while tenants may welcome the move in the short term, ‘they won’t realise that it will boomerang back on them'”.

Mr Lambert continued: ‘Agents will have no other option than to shift the fees on to landlords, which many will argue is more appropriate, since the landlord employs the agent.’

But he said that with landlords already facing tax changes which squeeze their income, they will be pushed towards increasing rents.

(Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Genevieve Moore, a partner at accounting and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg, said it is likely that charges for landlords will increase.

She said: ‘This could trigger increases in rents as landlords recover these costs from tenants.’

Richard Price, executive director at the UK Association of Letting Agents (UKALA), said: ‘A ban on agent fees may prevent tenants from receiving a bill at the start of the tenancy, but the unavoidable outcome will be an increase in the proportion of costs which will be met by landlords, which in turn will be passed on to tenants through higher rents.’